Sky News launches interactive iPad app

Sky News has today launched a new "ground-breaking" application for Apple's iPad, enabling users to control their own real-time news service.

Designed and built exclusively for the iPad, the Sky News App features live and on-demand video, expert analysis and rich interactive graphics.

Available now from the App Store, the app blends breaking news from around the world with interactive content, such as photo galleries, graphs and articles delivering extra context and analysis.

Sky News, which is due to be spun off as an independent company as part of News Corporation's takeover deal of Sky, said that users can also rewind and replay all live video via an instantly-updated video on-demand library.

In a blog posting, head of Sky News John Ryley described the iPad app launch as "one of the biggest events in the evolution of Sky News", largely because the tablet computer will become the broadcaster's "third major platform" alongside TV and online.

"This has been a big investment for us - in time, in man power, in brain power and financially," he said.

"A year in the making, the team at Sky News looked at the iPad and thought about what could be achieved with a news app, went back to the drawing board and re-wrote the rules."

Ryley added: "With Sky News for iPad, users have the news in their hands and can decide for themselves what they want to consume.

"For the first time our customers can control their own news experience allowing them to immerse themselves in both live and pre-packaged video, graphics, photo galleries, graphs and traditional articles with in-depth analysis. You can even rewind live video if you miss the start of a story. I'm hooked - and hope you will be too."

The app is free, but will move to a paid-for, monthly subscription in the "near future" for non-Sky customers. Sky's ten million subscribers will be able to continue to access the app for free as part of their subscription.

Sky News, recently named 'News Channel Of The Year' by the Royal Television Society (RTS), is already available on mobile devices as a live streamed channel via the Sky Mobile TV service.